Judging height above runway.
 

Seeing as there are so many discussions about how to land an airplane, especially wheel landings in tail wheel airplanes it would be interesting to discuss the height above the runway we are able to accurately and consistently determine.

I will start by saying between six inches and one foot depending on the size of the airplane.

How about the rest of you?

Hmmm, why do I get this funny feeling this will turn into a pi**ing competition. :confused:

Since when does judging height need to turn into a pi**ing competition?

Unless one is able to judge their height above the runway during the landing phase of the flight how can they fly safely?

How the hell can you tell?
If you know please tell me.

I reckon I fly just above the grass,then sometimes land with a bump,but blame it on the molehills;)

You judge height by the picture you are seeing.

When driving a car how do you judge your distance from other cars and any object near the road?
I will try...but first you need to tell me how you are judging your height during the latter stages of the landing.

You can PM me if you wish.

Boys, boys!

In my usual aircraft I reckon 2 foot all the time and on a good day half that. Which given its general good behaviour is more than good enough to get a smooth arrival.

Put me in something taller/bigger/smaller/heavier and it gets more difficult. Probably 3 feet or so - and the need for a bit of playng with the power to ensure a soft arrival.

I was taught to flare in a light aircraft when the 'green' of a grass airfield turns into individual blades of grass.

It depends on how good your eyesight is though!

When it looks about right, to me......depending on which it is of the two types I currently fly - Tiger Moth or C152. To be frank, I have no idea what my hold-off height is, at my small level of experience. I do know that I generally get a smooth arrival (in the 3-point attitude :}) so whatever the height the seems to be, minus the distance from tyres to eyeline, is my hold-off height in inches. Simples! :)

When I wore glasses I would very often find that I was flaring too high and dropping her on. Since having Laser surgery and therefore dispensing with all but reading glasses, my landings have improved out of all proportion.
I believe that this is because I now have a much better peripheral view than I had with glasses. This fits in with my old ex RAF flying instructor's advice, to look to the end of the runway and wait for the ground to come up in your peripheral vision and then keep her flying at that point until she lands herself.
I've never seen anything on the forum about the benefits of Laser surgery particularly associated with landing the aircraft, so I would be interested to hear from other pilots who have also undergone this procedure.

BTW.. I haven't typo'd the @ in LASER. For some reason it just comes up that way even though all the other "a" in the post come up normally. Strange eh:confused:

I just do it...I have no idea how high in feet I am above the runway but it seem to work ok.

utterly unscientific, but I'd guess that I generally estimate my correct roundout and flare heights to plus or minus about a quarter.

G

Chuck,thanks ,most of my landings are OK,(L4 Cub)so I suppose I'm at the right height when she stops flying.
I don't have any trouble landing ,just could not give you exact heights just before landing.
It would be interesting to have someone video my landings,so might ask a pal to do that for me.
Lister:)

Chuck

I think it was the way you asked the question. I cant imagine anyone on here actually knows how far they are form the runway. You may have an idea, but without video footage it is no more or less than that.

There was a lengthy thread recently to which you contributed. I think we all agreed that in order to make a good landing you need a good sense of how close to the runway you are.

So I dont disagee it is important but if I say I reckon I can run an aircraft down a runway 2 foot above the ground I have no way of proving it is two foot so I am not sure what point you are seeking to make.

Using peripheral vision, round out when the runway edge widens sufficiently to tickle the bottom of your ears.
At night use runway edge lights.:)

Ears etc
 

Does that work on all runway widths?:)

Runway width
 

It seems to, maybe the width is your peripheral vision in relation to the ground.

Well I'll argue about the runway width. I mainly fly from 'compact' runways and seem to need a differing set of references on something big or rather wide.

It it finding the point at which the flare needs to be maintained that I find more difficult. The best way seems to be to land to one side of the centreline and use those markings as a reference for height and then transfer to the runway end.

Runway width matters a lot. If you are used to flaring whatever aircraft you happen to be flying on a standard 150 ft (46 m) wide runway then a 200 ft or 300 ft wide runway might just find you flaring a bit in the high side.

Indeed, a 100 ft wide runway (like the old Sharjah) can come as something of a surprise.

The very worst landing that I ever did took place at Francistown, Botswana on 14th Oct 1966 whilst in command of XN849 (one of Mrs Windsor's HS Argosys). None of us (apart from the Loadmaster) had ever been there before). We were told before take-off that there would be no one there to talk to us on the radio so, "look at the windsock and land".

We knew the Lat and Long and elevation of the airfield and that the main runway was something like 5,200 ft long. That was it.

I can remember on short finals remarking to my F/O that the runway was probably a lot longer - perhaps 7,500 ft.

That's when we entered the ground at speed.

The runway was indeed 5,200 ft long but it was only 60 ft wide!

Runway width matters a lot.

I call it "the Shoreham shock", which is even less comfortable than "the Filton flare, float, fall".

It is seven thirty in the morning and my caffeine level is still to low to function on a level sufficient to explain why judging height during a landing is of paramount importance.

So I will just say hello to the tribe and when I get in shape to face another day I shall come back and fully and clearly outline my thoughts on this subject and explain exactly how I teach accurate height judgment. :ok: